Friday, June 23, 2017

Friday Morning Hot Links

Update from yesterday: Our A/C did not, in fact, heal itself and it went out. It's 80 degrees in my house at 5:58am. Hottest day of the year and the tech can't get here until 4pm. Looking forward to sweating off about 10 pounds today. *The Astros had to sweat out what once was a 10-run lead thanks to some shaky pitching from guys who should probably only be pitching in a 9-run game. Or in Fresno. Astros win, 12-9. The offense was unstoppable in the 2nd inning, scoring eight runs - including two 3-run homers from Marisnick (who entered the game after Springer went down) and Marwin. Nori Aoki was 3x5 with two doubles.

*David Paulino pitched a pretty okay game (which is good enough for this offense), throwing 5.1IP, 7H/3ER, 6K:2BB. He struck out five of the first six batters he faced, but efficiency was his downfall, getting pulled after 107 pitches.

*Dayan Diaz gets the Goat of the Game after allowing the A's to get right back in it, throwing 35 pitches to get one out and allowing three hits, two walks, and five runs total (thanks in part to Michael Feliz). Oakland's 8th inning went as such: Double, Strikeout, Walk, Double, Double, Wild Pitch, Walk. Michael Feliz "took over" and this happened: Double, Wild Pitch, RBI groundout, Strikeout.

*Josh Reddick was a (wink) single short of the cycle, going 3x4 with a double, triple, home run, and a walk. Reddick:You always want to do well against your former team. I enjoy beating them regardless. Whether I go 0x4 or I go 4x4. So, it is fun.

*The Outlaw Jesse Hahn got everyone all nervous, hitting George Springer on the left hand and knocking him out of the game. Hahn then proceeded to throw 2IP, 6H/10 R (9ER), 0K:3BB and thinks hitting Springer (X-Rays negative, day-to-day) threw him off:Yeah I think maybe that affected me. For me, my game is coming inside on righties, throwing my sinker in on righties and I kind of babied it in there after that. I started spiking a lot, yanking stuff, and it just wasn't good.

*Marisnick's 10th home run of the season set a career-high. Marisnick:It feels good doing all that work and then get the results. I'm excited about it, excited to kind of keep working on it and keep going.*The Astros have now won ten straight at Oakland, and 15 of their last 16 overall against the A's.

*They're 50-24 (reminder that the 2013 Astros were 51-111 for the season) with a 27-8 record on the road (those 2013 Astros were 27-53 on the road and the 2012 Astros went 20-61 on the road. Those were bad times.) The Cubs led MLB in 2016 with a 57-24 record. The 2015 Astros were 33-48 on the road. But the best Astros road record since 1998* came when the 2001 Astros went 49-32 on the road.

*I have other things to do today, so I stopped at 1998.

*Only three teams since 2000 have reached 50 wins in 74 games or less: the 2001 Mariners, the 2005 White Sox, and the 2015 Cardinals. Only the White Sox went on to win the World Series (boo! hiss!). Hinch:We're pretty even-keeled around here. We don't talk a lot about getting to 40 wins, getting to 50 wins. We're going to continue to press forward and try to win as many as we can.

*Houston is the first team in the Majors to reach 400 runs.

*USA Today: McCann and Gattis are a deadly combination. Also this, from McCann:Every day I walk out to the bullpen at home I get people screaming, 'Gatti, Gatti, sign!'

*Charlie Morton threw 36 pitches in 2IP, allowing 2H/1ER, 1K:1BB in a rehab start for Fresno. Fresno would go on to lose to Sacramento 9-3.

*Kyle Tucker hit his 5th Double-A home run last night in a 6-5 extra-inning win over Frisco thanks to Jon Singleton's sac fly. Tucker is hitting .255/.300/.511 in 22 games with Corpus. He's 20.

*Jon Heyman out here throwing slugs:Pedroia was upset at that young Astros pitcher not because he believed he threw at him on purpose but because of sheer incompetence; Pedroia was the second straight batter hit.

That "young Astros pitcher" is presumably 30-year old James Hoyt.

*Eno Sarris notes that the Astros are throwing the fewest four-seam fastballs in the Majors.

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